Get ready for another round of bickering about whether or not the one-and-done rule should be in place.

“I don’t really look at it from that perspective of what was good for the game of basketball,” Kobe Bryant told reporters when asked about his impact on the NBA as a prep-to-pro player. “I think the reality is there’s been a lot of players who’ve come out of high school. If you do the numbers and you look at the count, you’ll probably see players who came out of high school that were much more successful on average than players who went to college for a year or two or however long.”

“It seems like the system really isn’t teaching players anything, if you go to college. If you go to college, you play, you showcase, and you come to the pros. Well, that’s always been the big argument, as a player you have to go to college, you have to develop your skills and so forth and so on, and then you come to the league. So, we kind of got sold on that dream a little bit. Fortunately, I didn’t really listen much to it. Neither did KG. Neither did LeBron. I think that worked out pretty well for all three of us.”

“I’m always a firm believer in us being able to make our own decisions, especially as it pertains to going out and working and having a job. You should be able to go out there and make your own choices.”

Thanks, Kobe.

This is just what I needed on a Thursday in the heart of conference season. I’m going to break this down into bullet points:

Kobe may be a “firm believer” in “being able to make our own decisions”, but it’s the association that he is a member of that has done away with the one-and-done rule. It’s the NBA that instituted the age limit to be eligible for the NBA Draft. You want it changed? Take it up with the people that lose money while 18 year olds sit the bench — marginal NBA players looking for that last roster spot and NBA owners that want to draft NBA ready talent — during future CBA talks.

That said, I actually agree with him. I’ve written about it too many times to count so I won’t rehash it all here, but I don’t think it’s right to channel these kids into colleges where they get “paid” with a scholarship that they will never maximize while everyone else (coaches, administrators, NCAA suits, etc.) gets rich off of their exploits. That’s morally wrong.

Kobe mentions himself, Kevin Garnett and LeBron as examples of why colleges don’t develop players, three of the best prospects we have seen come through the high school ranks. They were going to be stars regardless of where they played after high school. The same can probably be said for the likes of Kevin Durant and Kevin Love, and, eventually, Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid. But would Damian Lillard be one of the best point guards in the NBA without Weber State? Would Steve Nash have been Steve Nash without Santa Clara? Where is Roy Hibbert if he doesn’t spend four years learning at Georgetown? How many top 50ish recruits has Bill Self turned into first round picks? What about Korleone Young or Ousmane Cisse or Leon Smith? Think they could have used a few years on campus?

The bottom-line is this: Elite prospects like Kobe and KG and LeBron were always going to be great. College would have been more-or-less useless for them.

But to dismiss the teaching ability of the coaches at the collegiate level is just stupid.

Hurley has led the Rams to the NCAA tournament the last two years and signed a seven-year contract with Rhode Island worth approximately $1 million per year last off-season. UConn was paying Kevin Ollie, who led the team to the 2014 NCAA title before being fired after this season, an average of $3 million per season while Kevin Stallings reportedly was due a buyout of nearly $10 million when he was fired by Pitt this season.

What Hurley will have to weigh beyond the financial circumstances will be his ability to win at either UConn or Pitt, should he decide to move on from Rhode Island.

Ollie – well, really Shabazz Napier and Ryan Boatright – showed you can win a national title out of the AAC at UConn. The league adding Wichita State only strengthens that point. Pitt, meanwhile, may be a tougher job now than it was when Jamie Dixon had it rolling since their move from the Big East to the ACC.

Eamonn Brennan of The Athletic joined Rob Dauster for an epic, two-hour podcast on the first weekend of the tournament. It was so good that we had to split the podcast into two parts. On this show, the two go through everything that happened in the South and West Regions, from Sister Jean to UMBC to Nevada’s comebacks to Kentucky’s chances at a Final Four.

On this show, the two go through everything that happened in the East and Midwest Regions, from Villanova and Duke steamrolling to Michigan State collapsing to Syracuse and Clemson and Texas Tech and Purdue. It’s all in there.

6. TY JEROME DOESN’T HAVE TIME FOR YOUR DUMB QUESTIONS

Having to answer questions from a bunch of reporters after suffering the most humiliating moment of your life is not an easy thing to do. Having to answer ridiculous and stupid questions could be intolerable, which is why I loved Ty Jerome’s response to a stupid question he was asked:

The worst-kept secret in college basketball no longer appears to be a secret: Penny Hardaway is going to be the next coaching at the University of Memphis.

ESPN is reporting that a deal has been agreed upon. The Memphis Commercial-Appeal is reporting that Penny was waiting for his season to end with East High School before he made anything official. NBC Sports can confirm that an announcement is expected to be made early this week, likely as soon as Tuesday, to introduce the former Memphis and NBA star as Tubby Smith’s replacement.

The truth, however, is that we all knew this was what would be happening the second that Memphis formally fired Tubby Smith. Hell, we knew it a month before that decision was made final. This was always how it was going to play out.

What’s interesting to me is now the discussion of whether or not Penny will be able to handle being a Division I head coach, because it’s been hit or miss with basketball programs hiring legends of their past. Chris Mullin and St. John’s hasn’t exactly gone to plan but Fred Hoiberg was quite successful at Iowa State. Kevin Ollie won a title with UConn then fell off a cliff. Patrick Ewing’s start wasn’t great, but he was better than expected.

Hardaway isn’t a guy who woke up one morning and decided he’d like to be a Division I head coach. He’s not a former player who got bored with retirement and decided he’d like to do something other than play golf.

Hardaway started coaching at middle school. Middle school! Because an old friend needed some help.

Then he built one of the best AAU programs in the country. Then he spent years coaching a high school team.

Does that sound like someone who doesn’t want to roll up his sleeves and do the work? Does that sound like someone who is just in it for the glory and the glitz?

The truth is, if it weren’t for Hardaway’s iconic stature, he might be characterized as a grinder, as a guy who worked his way up from the lowest levels of basketball on the strength of his relationship with the kids.

I think that this is going to work out for both Penny and Memphis, especially if Penny hires a staff that can help him with the intricacies of running a college basketball program.